On Duterte’s bloody war on drugs

The war on drugs in the Philippines went on for six months before it was ordered halted on January 29 by President Rodrigo Duterte and on January 30 by his Chief of Philippine National Police Ronald Dela Rosa. The impetus was the kidnapping of South Korean businessman Jeck Ick Joo in Angeles City and murder inside Camp Crame.

For six months, the police and the vigilantes were on a killing spree; an international wire reported that the police had an almost perfect record of kills in its drug operations. They were on a virtual “license to kill” from the president who said he will back them up, for as long as it is done in the name of the war on drugs. Metro Manila urban poor communities were killing fields at night.

After much doggedness on continuing the uncontrollable rampage of war on drugs that saw the rise of drug-related killings to 7,000, the many incidents of innocents, mistaken identities and collateral damage killed, and various reports of corruption, abuses and crimes of the PNP in the conduct of the drug war, the war on drugs is said to be over. Or suspended, until the PNP is done with its internal cleansing, as Dela Rosa put it. But by the end of January, no more drug operations said Dela Rosa and all anti-drug units at all levels of the PNP would be dissolved said Duterte.

However, at least five more killings in the drug war campaign was reported even after the order to halt the war on drugs.

I interviewed Prof. E. San Juan to give an analysis on Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

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Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The Philippine Reporter (print edition) is a Toronto Filipino newspaper publishing since March 1989.
It carries Philippine news and community news and feature stories about Filipinos in Canada and the U.S.